The Palaszczuk Government is making serious inroads into women's leadership in the construction industry.

Minister for Housing and Public Works said his call to industry for nominations from women to become referees on the industry's high level Building and Development Dispute Resolution Committees (BDDRC) has resulted in a large number of high quality nominations.

Mr de Brenni said the continued advocacy of groups like the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) is critically important to the Queensland industry, and would assist the government to reach gender parity targets outlined in the Towards Gender Parity: Women on Boards Initiative.

“The Palaszczuk Government is committed to reaching gender balance on all government boards and committees by 2020,” Mr de Brenni said.

“We’ve launched the initiative because there are solid, bottom-line reasons for having gender parity on committees like these.

“Research shows that boards and committees perform better when they include people with diverse perspectives and approaches.

“In fact, Deloitte Access Economics research on gender parity has estimated that parity on all Queensland boards and committees would deliver $87 million in productivity gains – without requiring more workers or additional hours to be worked.”

NAWIC Queensland President Alison Price commended the initiative, and said the organisation was honoured to be approached to make recommendations.

"The Palaszczuk Government's support of women in the construction industry has been phenomenal,” Ms Price said.

“I can't wait to see the communication and negotiation skills of these candidates in action helping resolve disputes in our industry."

NAWIC member and nominee Sarah Roach agreed, and said there is excellent female talent in the construction industry to draw from.

“It’s a credit to the Palaszczuk Government and a demonstration of its commitment to gender parity to be actively seeking referee nominations from organisations like NAWIC,” Ms Roach said.

Mr de Brenni said it is in the State’s interest to actively encourage gender parity, not only on government boards and committees, but on all boards and committees in the State.

Mr de Brenni said the BDDRC was made up of a pool of about 100 suitably qualified industry professionals who as referees hear and decide appeals lodged by the public about a range of building, plumbing and planning matters.

He said referees included building surveyors and certifiers, planning and environment solicitors, planners, architects, engineers and plumbers.

“Twenty-three percent of the BDDRCs referees are women at present,” he said.

“This is further progress on the Palaszczuk Government’s target of 50% women on boards by 2020.”

NAWIC Queensland, part of a national organisation, provides seminars, mentoring programs and industry information to assist and promote women in the construction industry.

The current pool of BDDRC referee appointments are due to expire in early December 2017.